Ship Guarding
by blueaorta
Summary: Zoro and Luffy are guarding the ship. Unrequited love, fluff, etc... obviously a ZOLU! oneshot.


_Hi everyone! It's a ZoLu story full of –umm- ZoLuey goodness! (hopefully)_

_Eiichiro Oda owns One Piece and pwns the world._

Luffy sighed. He wasn't bored, exactly, because who could ever be bored on the Grand Line? Well, okay, he was bored. Zoro was sleeping on his favorite part of the railing, Robin, Usopp, and Chopper had gone shopping —_again_— and Nami and Sanji were who knew where. _Probably making out_, he thought bitterly, then reproached himself. _Don't be silly, Luffy. Just because… that person… doesn't even notice you is no reason to deny your friends their happiness_.

He exhaled again, wondering why the sky had to be so blue. He didn't usually mind it, but then lots of things were annoying him today. Maybe it was like when Nami or Robin had their 'bad times.' That was probably it.

Ah! A brilliant idea! Meat! That would certainly cheer him up. He bounded over to the kitchen, but Sanji had the fridge carefully booby-trapped, as always. Luffy puffed his cheeks out and pouted. He stamped a foot, and off flew his sandal. It made a funny thunking noise before clattering to the deck.

"What the fuck? Oh, Luffy," muttered Zoro as he settled back down, rubbing his head. "Damn, that hurt. Don't throw your shoes."

"Wari, Zoro." Luffy turned to watch his first mate go back to sleep, but saw that instead Zoro was walking toward his weights. "Ooooh, Zoro, can I watch?" he asked. "There's nothing to _do_."

"Sure, whatever," mumbled Zoro. Luffy lay down on the deck with his legs in the air and waved them back and forth. Zoro picked up a weight. Luffy grinned to himself. It was hot, and the sky was blue, so soon Zoro would get sweaty and take his shirt off.

Sure enough, Zoro wiped his face with one arm and pulled off his thin white shirt. Luffy stretched his neck a little so he could see the swordsman's narrowed eyes as he lifted the huge weight. Zoro's eyes… Luffy liked Zoro's eyes like this, concentrating so hard, getting stronger by sheer will. Zoro never looked at _him_ that way, never looked at his captain like a puzzle with one solution.

Luffy moved on down, filling his eyes with Zoro, with leaf-green hair and tight tanned chest. He wondered if Zoro was green 'down there.' He felt an answer in his own body and looked away from his crush for a minute to quell himself. He could smell the heady salt scent of the sea, and in the hard blue sky a seagull dipped and turned. Luffy felt the excitement leave, and as soon as he trusted himself he looked back at his first mate, not wanting to miss more than he had to.

Only to see Zoro's face not a foot from his, looking blank, which in Zoroland meant 'I'm very conflicted right now and I don't really know what's going on.'

"Uh, Luffy? Are you all right? You've been really quiet for like ten minutes," said Zoro.

Luffy smiled _(awkwardly. Oh, so awkwardly.)_ "Daijoubu, Zoro. The weather's really nice today. Everything looks pretty in the sun."

Zoro's lips _(Zoro's lips!)_ crooked into a half smile. He replied, "I bet. Do you have another octopus in your pants?" (1)

"Wha- oh." Looking down, Luffy saw that he hadn't recovered as much as he'd thought. His cheeks colored a wonderful coral pink and he made a dive for the men's cabin, clacking the door shut behind him.

Zoro sighed. Most of the time these days, he tried not to look at his captain too much in order to avoid exactly the situation he had landed Luffy in. He wondered what Luffy had been thinking of. Probably Nami. She was young enough (unlike Robin, despite her gorgeous face and figure) and… well, maybe they had a kind of tough love thing going? It seemed unlikely, but what else?

On such a small ship it seemed that everyone would be forced to notice a romance sprouting in their midst. Zoro tried, he really did, to hide what he felt for Luffy, but he felt awful when he was bathing the rubberman and looking at his limp, lithe body in all the wrong ways. As if he were taking advantage of Luffy's unconsciousness to rob him of his innocence. Now it seemed as if Luffy's innocence was disappearing without Zoro's help, and he hated that even more.

Zoro picked up the iron weight and tried to concentrate, but his mind kept wandering to the men's cabin and the dark-eyed, blushing captain hiding there. He gave up and lay down by the railing to nap… or think.

Luffy hugged his knees as he rocked in his hammock. It took a lot to embarrass him, but now he wondered whether he'd be able to bring himself to appear at dinner. _Zoro's face! What on earth was I thinking, I can't even watch him training without it happening. If he looks at me during dinner it'll happen again, I know it will. _

Luffy buried his face in his blanket. _But there'll be meat… I can't not eat meat… but I can't not look at Zoro either._ He remained there until his body relaxed and he began emitting soft snores.

Zoro lifted the cover from the door and slid easily down, landing silently on booted feet, still shirtless. His earrings chimed and he put up a hand to still them. It wouldn't do to be noisy now.

_All right, I admit it's dumb. But… I need to know. _

He spotted his captain curled up in his hammock, sleeping with one hand dangling to the floor and the other beneath his head. Luffy's mouth was slightly open, and he was murmuring something in his dreams. He looked…_so young_, thought Zoro._ But he's an extraordinary person. Strong and silly and gentle, the perfect captain. (the perfect lover.) My captain. (I wish he were my lover!)_

He leaned closer to catch the words Luffy was saying in his sleep, and sat down hard after the first one:

"Zoro…" Zoro waited in suspense. What would come next? This, he knew, he wasn't supposed to hear.

"Zoro…" and then, quietly:

"Meat…" Zoro hit his forehead with the heel of his palm.

Luffy's mouth closed, and Zoro knew that that was all his captain would divulge in his sleep. Zoro, Meat. _What the fuck is that supposed to mean?_

Luffy stirred, opening his dark eyes, and now it was Zoro's turn to be embarrassed. _It's one thing to come down here and wake him like I planned, but to be caught watching him sleep… Shit. I'm awful at this whole love thing._

Luffy opened his eyes. He shut them, and opened them again, and still the image before them persisted: Zoro, sitting on the floor, shirtless, bewildered, and the most attractive Luffy had ever seen him.

His cheeks were rose-pink against his tan skin, and his eyes… _Zoro's eyes_… were looking at him, wide and truthful, as if he had just found the only answer to a puzzle he had been solving for years. Then Zoro tensed, looked away, muttered something awkward. Luffy wanted to take him by the shoulders and shake him and scream for being so gorgeous and so unreachable.

Zoro said something, he didn't know what, anything to ease the tide of shame that coursed through his body.

"Luffy… I love you." _Kami-sama, I don't believe in you. Please strike me with a bolt of lightning if you do exist. Please spare me this incredibly awkward scene. I'm a complete dolt. _

"Zoro, Zoro, wait, wait, don't go. What did you say? Zoro, wait. Wait! Captain's order!" Zoro stopped, one foot on the ladder.

"Tell me!" Luffy said plaintively. "Tell me what you said."

"I said- look, Luffy, I'm really not comfortable telling you this-"

"Zoro, you're my truest nakama. Tell me. It'll be okay."

"Luffy, I know you ordered me to, but-"

"JUST TELL ME ALREADY!"

"Okay, fine! Here goes- I love you."

Luffy grinned wider than he'd ever done before.

"Zoro, I'm so happy! That's great, I love you too! I never thought you'd love me back." Luffy scrambled out of his hammock, fell flat on his face, and hugged Zoro ferociously. Zoro's blush deepened, then he raised Luffy's chin and brushed the bangs out of his eyes.

Luffy felt his face tilted gently up until he was looking at Zoro's face, and then felt rough fingers brush the hair from his eyes. Zoro's eyes were narrowed as if he were contemplating what to do with the slim boy clinging to him. Luffy felt it was time to take the initiative, and lifted his face so that their mouths met.

Zoro tasted like ocean.

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_(1) See Navarone, at the end of the Skypiea arc. Luffy keeps the balloon octopus in his pants throughout the escapade._

_I'm sorry for the immense amounts of cliché and fluff in this story. I am not, however, sorry that after the final scene there is another scene which will remain unwritten in which Zoro and Luffy finally get into each other's pants._

_Review if you liked it, review if you didn't, and thanks if you do. _

_If you don't click the friendly review button, I'll sic Godzilla on you. _


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